Elderly driver backs over 7, killing 3, after church in Florida

An investigator and a bystander at the scene of an accident that killed three elderly women Sunday in Bradenton, Fla.

An elderly Florida woman is unlikely to face criminal charges after she backed out of a parking space into a crowd of pedestrians, killing three senior citizens, authorities said Monday.

Doreen Landstra, 79, of Bradenton, Fla., lost control of her Chevrolet Tahoe sport-utility vehicle after church late Sunday morning at Sugar Creek Country Club, the state Highway Patrol said.

Landstra began backing out of a handicapped parking space but then pulled forward to negotiate another parked vehicle, the Highway Patrol said in a statement. As she tried to pull back out, the rear of the SUV struck seven pedestrians standing in the parking lot, it said.

Margaret Vanderlaan, 72, Wilhemina Paul, 70, Johanna Dijkhoff, 80, were killed. Four other people were treated at hospitals.

State Trooper Kenn Watson said it was unlikely that Landstra would face charges because neither alcohol nor drugs were and involved, and "obviously, there was no intent."